Giuliano Carmignola

“Who better to disclose the poetic utterances of these pieces with their highly developed ‘esprit de fantaisie’ than Giuliano Carmignola? I cannot think of any other violinist at the moment who feels this music with such depth and delicacy of expression and who can sustain the melodic line in a manner which mirrors the sustained style of an operatic aria.”

Giuliano Carmignola was born in Treviso, where his violinist father discovered and encouraged his son’s passion for music and where the Vivaldi renaissance began 50 years ago. Luigi Ferro, his first teacher at the Venice Conservatory, was a soloist with the Scuola Veneziana Orchestra that Angelo Ephrikian created in 1947 to perform Vivaldi’s music. He later played with the Virtuosi di Roma, with whom Carmignola was in turn to appear as a soloist from 1970 to 1978, while succeeding Ferro as a teacher in Venice.

Carmignola’s career was launched in 1973 when he was a prizewinner at the International Paganini Competition in Genoa. Having attended master classes with Nathan Milstein, Franco Gulli and Henryk Szeryng, he went on to perform the major violin works of the 19th and 20th centuries under conductors of the stature of Claudio Abbado, Eliahu Inbal, Peter Maag and Giuseppe Sinopoli, including giving the Italian premiere of Henri Dutilleux’s Violin Concerto. As a teacher, he has been on the staff of the Musikhochschule in Lucerne and the Accademia Musicale Chigiana.

For pre-Classical works, Carmignola has two instruments, the superb Floreno Guidantus of 1739, and an anonymous 18th-century violin owned by the late Angelo Ephrikian, who also came from Treviso and who deciphered the first Vivaldi manuscripts to be brought to light after World War II.

2001

Makes his US debut at the Mostly Mozart Festival at Lincoln Center

2002

His rapturously received debut at the BBC Proms in August at London’s Royal Albert Hall is broadcast nationwide by the BBC

2003

Leads the Academy of Ancient Music on a European tour, is soloist with the Basle Chamber Orchestra, and makes his debut at the Boston Early Music Festival. This year Carmignola becomes an exclusive artist of Deutsche Grammophon/Archiv Produktion

2004

In Bologna, Carmignola and Claudio Abbado begin a three-year series of Mozart concertos to be given throughout Europe with the Orchestra Mozart; other engagements include performances with Les Violins du Roy, the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra (under Ton Koopman), the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and a highly acclaimed US tour with the Venice Baroque Orchestra, featuring Vivaldi for the inaugural season at Walt Disney Hall in Los Angeles

2005

Performances throughout the UK with the Academy of Ancient Music, tours of Europe and Japan with Andrea Marcon and the VBO, and concerts with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra. Carmignola’s highly acclaimed debut recording for Deutsche Grammophon is released: Concerto veneziano with Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra

2006

Carmignola plays much Mozart with Abbado and the Orchestra Mozart in numerous Italian venues and Salzburg. Mozart is also prominent in his concerts with the Academy of Ancient Music in Belgium, Great Britain and on tour in the US. He appears with Marcon and the VBO in Germany, Spain and Austria (including the Vienna Musikverein together with violinist Viktoria Mullova). His world-premiere recording of five unknown Vivaldi violin concertos with Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra is released with great success

2007

The year opens with performances of Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with the Basle Chamber Orchestra in Switzerland, Austria and Germany, followed by a recital tour in Japan. Carmignola and the VBO under Marcon tour the USA and South America, and also appear in Germany and France. Mozart’s Violin Concerto no. 5 with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra under Roberto Abbado. Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos with the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado on a tour of Italy, and Bach, Vivaldi and Locatelli with the Academy of Ancient Music on UK tour. Appearances with the Tonkünstler Orchestra in Austria. Festival appearances include the Musikfest Bremen with the VBO and Marcon performing Vivaldi, and the Lucerne Festival with The Matteis Project Ensemble performing Matteis’s A clear view of heaven

2008

Appearances with the VBO and Marcon in Switzerland and at the Rheingau Music Festival. Concerts with the VBO in France, Germany and on tour in Japan and South Korea, with the Orchestra Mozart and Claudio Abbado in Italy, the Orchestra della Toscana in Italy, and the Academy of Ancient Music in Germany and Britain (including London’s Wigmore Hall). Releases this year include Mozart’s Violin Concertos and the Sinfonia Concertante (with violist Danusha Waśkiewicz) with the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado and Vivaldi Concertos for Two Violins in which Carmignola is partnered by Viktoria Mullova and the VBO conducted by Andrea Marcon.

2009

Vivaldi concertos with the VBO in the USA, France, Germany and Switzerland; Mozart concertos with the Orchestre des Champs-Élysées in Munich, France and the Baltic countries; Mendelssohn Concerto with the Basle Chamber Orchestra under Paul McCreesh; Tartini’s A major Concerto with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Giovanni Antonini; performances with the Orchestra Mozart in Italy; Mozart sonatas with pianist Robert Levin at the Salzburg Mozart Week; recital tour with Viktoria Mullova in Italy; numerous other concerts and recitals in France, Germany, Italy and Spain. Released this year: Concerto Italiano with the VBO conducted by Andrea Marcon, featuring works by Vivaldi and others; Pergolesi’s Violin Concerto with Claudio Abbado and Orchestra Mozart (Record Academy Prize, Tokyo, 2009)

2010

This year sees Carmignola in concert with the Academy of Ancient Music in the UK (including the Wigmore Hall); with the VBO on tour in Switzerland, the USA, Japan and Korea; with Orchestra Mozart and Claudio Abbado in Italy; with Sonatori de la Gioiosa Marca in Austria, Luxembourg and Spain; and with the Bremen Philharmonic under Marcon in Bremen. He also plays Baroque sonatas at the Salzburg Whitsun Festival and gives recitals with pianist Yasuyo Yano in Paris, Italy, Japan and at the Menuhin Festival in Switzerland